Thursday, November 27, 2014

Gerstner inspired tool chest

Last time I was on the ship I started a Gerstner inspired tool chest. I never made any blog entries about it due to our Internet connection which was incredibly bad to say the least.

The idea was to make a pallet wood build of something that would feature a Gerstner like front. I managed to restrain myself from planning too many drawers, so it is just a rather small chest with 4 drawers. Nothing too fancy.

I used some stack-able pallet sides for material. It is spruce and has a nice width to it. It also isn't too thick, so I could dress the thickness just using my scrub plane. It is a huge advantage not having to re-saw wide stock.

The frame is assembled with through dovetails in the corners, and the back is inserted in a groove.

I made the front dovetails mitered because I think it looks better that way on a piece like this. Already now I think the sides look a little clumsy, so I should probably have made the stock thinner.

The drawers will be graduated in height, and they are intended to slide on oak runners. I had made some oak ready for the runners, and tonight I planed them so they would fit in the grooves. Each runner is 10 mm high and approximately 11 mm wide (I didn't measure them). I still need to make 2 before being finished with them.
My idea is to simply nail them in place, to avoid any wood movement issues. They fit snugly in their grooves, so the nails wont take any load from the drawers.

I have actually made the front as well, but it seems that I have forgotten to take any pictures of it. The front was a bit of an experiment. Previously I have used mitered bridle joints for the frame, and then added a floating panel inside. I decided that this front would never see the same amount of beating that a lid on a normal tool chest, so a bit more delicate construction would be OK.
Consequently I made the front as a purely tongue and groove construction but still with a floating panel inside. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow.

I still have a little bit of oak out here, so I'll see if I can mange to make the drawer fronts out of it as well. Regardless of what type of finish I will use, it should give a nice contrast to the ligher coloured spruce.

I've always liked the look of the Gerstner tool boxes. Every example I've seen was made with oak, and they were all quite expensive. I once saw a Gerstner on the internet which the owner used to hold all of his fishing lures/fly fishing parts, which I thought was a good idea-even though I am not much of a fisherman myself. Will you finish the chest with a dye or stain? Just wondering.Bill

Gerstner chests are iconic. I have seen on their home page that you can get them in different species now such as walnut and cherry (I think), but to mee a real Gerstner should be made our of oak.I haven't given much thought of the finishing yet. But I have considered using some marine varnish.Maybe I should try to use the horse based stain first. I have a little left of it at home, it might be worth trying. I haven't got any idea about what I should put into it. I think it will be too heavy for fishing tackle, unless it was for collectors items. Maybe I'll give it away as a Christmas present. I haven't really given much thought to that part of the project yet.Have a nice weekendJonas

Looking good, I'm sure it'll turn out really good, and you'll find something to put in there. For me I always have lots of small fiddly bits that could use a proper home, and these tool boxes look ideal... the challenge is later on remembering where or in which drawer I stored things.

Thanks.I am sure that I could find something to put in there, but I will probably give it to somebody as a Christmas gift. Unless I decide that it will end up looking too clumsy, then I can't give it away. I would like to line the drawers with some green felt. That is something that have always appealed to me. It looks so nice and classy. BrgdsJonas

Great project. Look forward to watching the progress. That type of drop-away front has always appealed to me as well. You can never have enough boxes and drawers. No matter what, they always seem to fill up quickly.

I am trying to figure out if my method of mounting the sliding pins in the front will work. It might be that I have to wait till the very end before nailing on the drawer runners. I would like to make a nice looking Gerstner style chest out of elm once. So this is mainly as an experiment to see what will work and what won't.It is also a bit on the small side, but that was because I wanted to use just one single pallet frame for raw materials. But I am curious myself as to the final looks of the chest.BrgdsJonas